Love Freedom? Wear a Red Hat

From L to R: Papa Smurf, the coat of arms of Argentina

Four years ago, I had the good luck to take a small guided tour of the Argentine National Congress. Throughout the tour, I became increasingly curious about Argentina’s coat of arms, particularly its focus on Papa Smurf’s lonely red hat hanging on stick.

I mustered the courage to ask our tour guide about it. He told us that the coat’s rising sun represents the birth of a new nation, the blue and white background reminds us of the clear sky and the Río de la Plata, the laurels symbolize Argentina’s successful struggle for freedom, the joining hands represent the solidarity of the Argentine people, and the staff represents the power of the people’s union.

“Yeah, but what about the hat?” I asked.

“Yeah…that’s just a hat.”

His response was simultaneously disappointing and totally awesome. None of my curiosity was assuaged, but I was left imagining a priceless exchange between the original coat of arms designer and the first president of Argentina.

If only it were so simple.

The hat is a liberty, or Phrygian, cap. Its inclusion on the coat of arms completes a graceful visualization of Argentina’s motto, En Unión y Libertad (In Union and Liberty).

Phrygia was an ancient kingdom in what is now Turkey. Its inhabitants would wear soft, red caps with the top pointed forward to distinguish themselves from their neighbors. Over time, the Greeks came to dominate the region, and the Phrygian caps eventually came to represent anything eastern or non-Greek. The caps became a symbol of freedom much later when freed Roman slaves started wearing them to represent their new status as Roman citizens. Freedom lovers worldwide have been wearing them ever since.

The cap became immensely popular in the late 18th century when French revolutionaries adopted the red Phrygian cap as their symbol, winning them the name of Red Republicans. Bostonian revolutionaries also placed a red cap atop a liberty pole during the American Revolution, an image echoed by the staff in Argentina’s seal. The symbol survives today not only on Argentina’s coat of arms, but on the seal of the United States Senate and the coats of arms of Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua.

Psychedelic mushrooms (Psilocybe semilanceata) are even called liberty caps by those seeking liberty from the confines of space and time.

From L to R: Vikram Ray, Klaus Daimler, Steve Zissou, Vladimir Wolodarsky, Pelé dos Santos, Eleanor

And yes, Papa Smurf and all the Smurfs wear them—which brings me to what is probably the greatest controversy surrounding the Phrygian cap our generation will face. That is, do Steve Zissou and his team wear Phrygian caps?

The Phrygian cap is traditionally red, although records exist of some white Phrygian caps (most notably, the Smurfs’). Regardless of color, Phrygian caps have all had their tops pointed forward. Team Zissou’s hats are merely knit caps with no clear top to point in any direction. The fact is that Zissou’s cap is clearly an homage to Jacques Cousteau who almost certainly wore his in homage to his country’s revolutionaries. It appears that Cousteau brought the Phrygian cap into the 20th century, adopting the red and discarding the traditional pointed top. Wes Anderson’s Steve Zissou carried the tradition from there.

It’s a shame that the cap’s significance is essentially lost to the masses. Most freedom lovers in the United States show their love by wearing variations of the American flag, despite its inelegance and the fact that it’s illegal—United States Flag Code, Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (j) states:

No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However a patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations.

If you really love freedom, why not wear a red cap instead? It’s legal, it’s recognized worldwide, and perhaps most importantly, it’s classic!